1. Technical Field
Embodiments described herein relate to semiconductor devices and methods for operation of semiconductor devices. More particularly, embodiments described herein relate to testing and characterization of semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits, and the programming and operation of the integrated circuits based on the characterization and testing.
2. Description of Related Art
Overall power consumption for semiconductor devices (e.g., semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) such as logic or memory ICs) is a combination of dynamic (active) power consumption and static (leakage) power consumption. As devices have reduced in size and the power requirements (especially dynamic power requirements) have been reduced, static power consumption has become a more significant factor in overall power consumption for integrated circuits and semiconductor devices. Static power consumption is especially important in portable electronic devices as static (idle) power consumption directly affects battery life. Thus, the control and optimization of static power consumption is increasingly needed for the production of semiconductor devices used in portable electronic devices as well as other electronic devices.
Variations during the manufacturing of integrated circuits (e.g., variations during IC processing) may cause variation between integrated circuits that are manufactured to the same design specifications. For example, manufacturing variations such as, but not limited to, equipment variations, position on a wafer, process fluctuations, and/or operator variations may cause one or more parameters to vary between integrated circuits formed on the same wafer, integrated circuits formed in the same lot (batch), and/or integrated circuits formed on different wafers in different lots. Because of these manufacturing variations, integrated circuits with the same design may have different static power consumption characteristics. Using integrated circuits with excessive power consumption may lead to decreased battery life and/or decreased operational lifetime in electronic devices such as portable electronic devices.